News

“The Wiltshire Heritage Museum has been awarded £370,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to support plans to create a new gallery focusing on their outstanding Bronze Age archaeological collections. This will tell the story of the people who built and used the world renowned monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury. The new Prehistoric Galleries will provide an opportunity to display for the first time in generations the unique gold and amber finds from Wiltshire that date back to the Bronze Age, over 4,000 years ago. This was a time of shaman and priests, learning and culture and contacts across Europe. The Museum will be able to build on its existing learning and outreach programme, and inspire local people and visitors to become engaged and informed about the prehistoric landscapes of Wiltshire.

“The story to be told at the Museum forms part of an integrated approach to the interpretation of Stonehenge. The Stonehenge Museums Partnership links the Museum with new galleries being developed at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre by English Heritage and new galleries being planned at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. English Heritage is supporting the project with a major grant to the Museum. Wiltshire Council have also helped behind the scenes.”

Comments (5)

Assuming they don't turn into some kind of shiny shouting childish minimal-information touch-screen fest where all the racket gives even an adult an attention span of 5 seconds. Like a lot of places I could mention.*

It is great that someone's decided to put some money into it at last though.

(*yeah those new-fangled places. Look, I know I'm being an old git but do I not have a bit of a point)

Aye, though there was a feature on the radio this morning about kids becoming more and more out of touch with nature – more likely to know what a Dalek is than a magpie! Moss’ 5 year-old granddaughter is already computer savvy *and* fast with it. Beautiful and fantastic prehistoric stuff in glass cases might just not fire the imagination for her generation. Maybe the WHM should ask the kids themselves what inspires them. Worst thing that could happen is for an older generation to imagine what kids want and then mess up (or some slick, know-nothing team of architects to gobble up a chunk of the award for some hare-brained all dancing display gallery).

Bit of TMA input here perhaps? Might even be worth starting a thread on the Forum - Design Suggestions for the New Prehistoric Galleries at the WHM. There’s also the lunchtime talk on the 12 April which might answer a few questions.

This looks like a *must* for anyone in the area the week after Easter:

Prehistoric Wiltshire: New Gallery at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Lunchtime Talk by David Dawson, 1:00 pm, Thursday, 12 April, 2012. No Charge.
This will be a special briefing about the Heritage Lottery Funded project given by David Dawson, Director. The importance of the HLF award cannot be under estimated. WANHS has been struggling financially and this injection of finance and the confidence that goes with it comes at a crucial time. Come along and find out more about the project and how this will enable us to tell the story of Wiltshire over 4,000 years ago - a time of shaman and priests, learning and culture across Europe.